When Walls Talk
by M'eyari
Summary: When an aspiring writer rents a beachhouse, the last company she expects is that of a ghostly captain. Set in present, JSOC. (Complete)
1. Default Chapter

_**Obligatory Disclaimer**: I don't own POTC, or any of the characters, rights and privileges that go with it. I'm just borrowing Jack. Okay, and the _Black Pearl_, too. Sort of. However, both Andrea and the plot are my brainchildren. This is my first POTC fic, as well as my first fic posted here. So reading and reviewing are good, happy things, and will let me know whether or not I should continue this tale..._

_**A/N**: Story reposted in its entirety on _November 27, 2004_ to fix wonky formatting and spelling errors. I was finally able to keep my computer running long enough (without crashing, or having severe hard drive failure) to install Microsoft Word and actually _use_ it. Hurrah! No more icky Wordpad for this writer!_

_An another note, one of the absolutely most helpful reviews I had was from _Blue Autumn Sky_, who pointed out that the romances in this fic were rather rushed. That happens when your Muse is impatient 'wink', but I've taken that into consideration and have made a decision: When my InuYasha fanfic, "_An American Werewolf in Sengoku Jidai_" is complete, I will return to this story and rework it so that the romances have more time to develop. Think Summer of 2005 as a tentative date for this._

_Until then, enjoy! And thank you to all of my readers and reviewers – you guys are the reason I love writing!  
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**Chapter One: Sanctuary**

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Andrea couldn't believe her luck. When she had decided that she needed to get away in order to finish her book, she had hoped only to find a quiet seaside house. With her limited budget that should have meant nothing grander than a two-room shack, hopefully with running water and electricity.

What she found herself moving into for the next two months was nothing short of a small palace.

Granted, it was a bit run-down. According to its owner, no one had rented the house for almost two years and any prospective renters had left before a tour could be completed.

"It needs some work." Daniel Norton had told Andrea. "Some tender, loving care that I don't have time to give it. To be honest, the house has been in my family for generations, but I think the time has finally come to sell it. And I can't do that with it in its current state."

And so they had come to an accord: Norton would rent Andrea the house for an extremely reasonable rate in exchange for her fixing it up a bit. 

It had taken Andrea a little over an hour to move in the things she needed to make herself at home. That's not difficult when your most important possessions are your computer and your cat, and not necessarily in that order. She spent most of her first day trying to keep Rum from losing himself in the house, and waiting for Norton to drop by with the house's keys.

She'd discovered fairly quickly that most of the doors had locks, and few of them would open with the key to the front door. This was made particularly apparent when Rum locked himself in a broom closet and Andrea had to make quick use of a screwdriver to get the curious cat out.

As Andrea waited for Norton, she followed Rum around the house. It was huge, by her standards - three stories that didn't include the small basement or the Widow's Walk on the roof. Andrea was surprised to find a small staircase hidden in the back of the kitchen, and then kicked herself when she realized that it led directly to the third floor. When Norton had given her a quick tour of the house, he'd told her that the old servants' quarters were on that floor. She was also hoping to question him about some oddities in the house that she'd noticed on the first floor, not the least of which was an old ship's wheel that had been carefully incorporated into the living room's wall.

Norton showed up several hours later than promised, without apology or excuse, just before sunset. He would have left just as abruptly as he had come, but Andrea questioned him about the wheel in the house. Norton just shrugged, with one hand already on his truck door.

"The ancestor of mine who built the place was an admiral in the British Navy. According to my grandfather, this admiral had spent most of his career tracking down a single pirate ship. After fifteen years of chasing her, the scent went cold, and the admiral thought that the ship's captain must have finally left the Caribbean. Now, notice that I said 'Caribbean', and that we are currently in good ol' New England. About a year after the pirates stopped hitting the Caribbean colonies, my ancestor was told that an unknown ship was plaguing the North American coast, raiding sea-side colonies and waylaying ships bound to those colonies. Now, this ancestor of mine got a hunch that he knew who the 'new' pirates were, and on that hunch he led a small fleet of British warships up the Eastern Coast. They ambushed the pirate ship as its crew was sacking the town that's just up the road here, and my ancestor killed her captain. The ship's crew were jailed and then hung, and as my ancestor was a 'Waste not, want not' sort of person, he had the pirates' ship torn apart and most of it reused to build the first floor of this house. He never lived here himself, but his younger son was happy to take up residence."

Norton paused as a chill breeze blew past him. "Now, this house has been built on to and remodeled many times over the course of the last two hundred and fifty years, but I know for a fact that that wheel is from the original ship."

Norton made it clear that he'd finished his tale by hopping into his truck. He gave Andrea a wave, and then sped out of the driveway just as the sun sank below the horizon. Andrea shivered as another cold wind blew in from the sea, and turned to go back into the house. Rum was making a nuisance of himself by twining around her ankles, meowing for his dinner. 

Andrea tripped once or twice on her way back to the door, and the second time she could have sworn that she'd seen a flash in one of the windows. "Probably just the moonlight." she told herself, even though the moon was far from full and had yet to show its face even though the sun had set.

Andrea took her time feeding Rum, and then left the happy cat to munch while she finished hooking up her computer. Her book was saved as a file on one of her discs, and now that everything was hooked up properly it was time for her to get back to work. She warmed up some pizza for herself while the computer booted, and caught herself humming an odd little tune. She stopped, then laughed when she realized that the tune was from a Disneyworld ride.

"Must be all the talk about pirates, Rum." The cat continued to bury his face in his bowl. There was food hidden in the corners, he just knew it, and Andrea laughed as the cat licked his bowl with such force that it skidded across the kitchen floor.

She stopped laughing when the bowl suddenly stopped dead at the kitchen's doorway. Rum sprang away from it, growling and hissing, with every hair on his little body standing stiffly to attention.

There was nothing there but the floor. Andrea began to walk toward the bowl to see if it had snagged on something when Rum suddenly relaxed and began washing himself.

"Silly kitty. Don't like your bowl having a mind of its own, do you?" Andrea reached down to pick up the metal bowl before gasping and yanking her hand away. The bowl was _freezing_! Around where her fingertips had touched it, frost began to form before quickly melting in the warm air of the house.

"What on Earth..." Andrea muttered, and then she shrugged. '_Probably just some fluke of ancient house heating._' she reasoned to herself. "If I'm not careful, my food will end up like that, eh Rum?" The cat ignored her to continue cleaning his hind leg.

Andrea shrugged again, grabbed her plate back from the counter, and continued into the living room. For just a moment, she shivered, and then reminded herself that the house had a modern furnace and that tomorrow she was just going to have to make sure that it was working properly. She made her way through the maze of empty computer boxes on the living room floor, and then groaned when she saw her computer's screen.

"No! Aww, man! Not _now_!" she grumbled. The Blue Screen of Death ignored her entreaties, and continued to give her its message that it was running Scandisk and that she should restart her system. "Grr...damn Windows! Why didn't I let Rod install Linux?" she grumbled to herself.

She did everything she could over the next hour before calling it quits when she couldn't figure out why her computer's OS wasn't loading properly. Her pizza sat in a cold, congealed mess on its plate, and it felt fear as Rum began to stalk it.

Andrea let out a final "Grrr!" of frustration before manually shutting down her computer and grabbing the plate from underneath Rum's nose. She was oblivious to the cat's glare as she took a big bite, then frowned and set the plate down as she tried not to spit the cold food back out.

"Well, m'dear Rum, I do believe it's time for bed. Damn piece of junk! I'm going to have to call Rod in the morning and have him talk me through this."

Andrea sighed. She'd come to the coast to get away from her writing problems, not to have more crop up. She'd had her computer-inclined friend thoroughly inspect the computer before she'd left home, but Andrea thought something must have happened to it while on the road.

She slowly rose from her computer chair, made her way out of the living room towards her bedroom, and hit the light switch on her way out.

She was completely oblivious to the wispy white form that hovered briefly over her computer. Rum followed obediently on her heels, and when she turned it was to see what the cat was growling at.

"Rum, knock it off, there's nothing there." she scolded. The cat looked at her with several thousand years of feline superiority behind his eyes. '_Yes,_' those eyes seemed to say, '_there is._' Andrea rolled her own eyes and continued on her way.

The cat turned once more and hissed at the fog the human couldn't seem to see. A low laugh rolled across the room, and Rum turned and followed his human. Whatever it was in the living room would not get to Andrea without going through Rum first.

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_A/N: Yes, the "pirate ship" in question is the _Black Pearl_. Yes, there is a ghost in the house, and right now I think that that ghost is Jack Sparrow. But don't hold me to that._


	2. Perchance to Dream

_**Disclaimer**: Blah, blah, blah, POTC's not mine. Yada, yada, yada, Andrea and Rum are._

**A/N**: To my wonderful reviewers: You are the wind in my sails. This one's for you, kids.  
  
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**Chapter Two: Perchance to Dream**

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Rum jumped up into bed after his human. As soon as Andrea's head hit her pillow she was out cold, but the cat circled restlessly. He knew something was wrong, but he just couldn't put his paw on it. Rum was young and had never encountered a ghost before, but he knew, with his deep kitty instincts, that its presence boded no good. He finally settled down at Andrea's feet, restlessly kneading her quilt with his freshly-clipped claws.

The unformed mist was patient. Guardians of the Underworld cats may be, but they were also prone to sleeping whenever an opportunity to presented itself. The mist had hoped to keep the cat trapped longer in the broom closet, but it was weakened during daylight hours and could not prevent the woman from hearing the animal's cries. Now it lurked just out of the cat's sight, waiting for its chance - its opportune moment.

With eyeless sight it watched as the cat's eyelids began to droop; with infinite patience it waited until the cat's breath was as slow and even as the woman's. It rolled slowly along the ceiling's trim, over the cat's head and down the wall to where the woman's head lay. Carefully, slowly, a tendril grew out of the mist and curled itself over the woman's head, covering her eyes...

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_Andrea was on a ship. A fine salty spray was moistening her hands, neck and face as she clutched the ship's rail. '_Strange,_' she thought, '_I've never been on a ship like this before...I've never worn a dress like this...why am I wearing a corset?!_' _

_The sea below was black, black as starless midnight, with foam that could be described as neon blue. The sky above was a violent purple, streaked with blue and green. _

_It looked like the Northern Lights on crack._

Hands appeared suddenly on either side of her neck, and Andrea jumped. "Don't turn around, luv, just keep lookin' at the pretty water._" Andrea fought the urge to turn, heart hammering in her chest as a necklace appeared, just as suddenly, in those mysterious hands. The hands slowly retracted from sight as the necklace was fastened around her neck. "_I bind ye to me, Andrea Talliver, to twine your dreams to mine until my suffering is brought to an end._" Andrea shivered under the hands' cool touch, and kept telling herself 'It's a dream, it's a dream, it is only a dream..."  
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Rum woke, sensing his human's distress, and moved as liquid lightning to attack the mist that had attached itself to Andrea's head and upper shoulders. Part of the mist was solidifying around her neck, and yet Rum's claws could not tear it away. He yowled in frustration, and then obeyed the instinct which made him butt his head to Andrea's chin, involuntarily breathing in the mist...

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"Unhand her, foul apparition!" _roared an adolescent voice. But Rum had entered the dream world just moments too late. The buccaneer had already fastened the soul-binding jewelry around Andrea's neck, and he whirled to face his unexpected opponent as Andrea sank lifelessly to the ground. _

"Now, let's just settle down here, mate." _The pirate was menace embodied as he stalked toward the enraged man-cat_. "The way I see it, you're both in my world now. My world, my rules, savvy?" 

_Rum growled, a feral sound to be coming from a human throat, as ten nine-inch claws sprang from his very human finger-tips. _"No world is governed by the rules of a single man, no matter what his will." _The pirate laughed, a low sound that made Rum's short hair stand on end. _"Are you sure of that, lad?"

_Rum found himself suddenly levitating high above the ship, its crow's nest nearly ten feet below him. Gravity returned in a rush of air, and Rum barely managed to sink his claws into the mast as he was hurtled towards the deck. Sparks flew from beneath his hands even as he felt the supernatural force release him. He yowled, and used his downward momentum to leap from the mast into the pirate's face. The man held up a hand, and Rum stopped a foot from his target, sliding towards the ground as though he had hit a wall. As Rum sank, his form dissolved...  
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The cat awoke in his own body, feeling like the mouse he'd dragged in that morning. Rum wearily looked up into Andrea's face before surrendering completely to kitty unconsciousness...

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_The pirate sighed. He wasn't one to torment defenseless animals, even cats. And the cat had been defenseless against him, young as it was._ "Nine months old if he's a day, and he thinks he can tangle with me?" _His sigh turned into a laugh. The wench was in, the cat was out, and things were finally starting to go his way. He looked ruefully down at the sleeping girl. _

"Now, if only she could dream up some _real_ rum..."

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_**A/N:** Sorry y'all, wanted to make this a longer chapter, but alas! My computer time is over, and I must now go. You know what they say: "Post what you can...give none of the reviews back!"_


	3. Beautiful Dreamer

_**Disclaimer**: How's about you save us all some time, and just remember the disclaimer in the first chapter, savvy?_

**A/N**: To my reviewers: My, see how curious the puppy is! (Lilo and Stitch quote, if you haven't seen it, shame on you!)

As for all of the questions...I'm not telling! Bwahahaha! ;) That's a writer's prerogative, you know. Just read the story and most things should make themselves apparent. I would like to say a few things though...

1) Who's the pirate? Read on! But for those of you who read the 2nd chapter...who else would say "savvy"?

2) To answer a good question, the admiral who "got" Jack was Norrington. Sort of. Over time, in this story, the family name was shortened to "Norton".

And without further ado, on to the show, folks.  
  
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**Chapter Three: Beautiful Dreamer**

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_In the dream world..._

_Nothing is as it should be. The sky is purple, not blue, and the echoes of time show themselves in the constant lightshow of the ever-shifting skies._

The sky god is mad, nay, insane, in the dream world because he has no power there. Morpheus reigns supreme and unchallenged in this world. The dream god is confident enough in his own power to allow both the living and the dead to enter his world. He knows that both are as rivers that meet in his little pool, and they are destined to leave as separately as they entered.

But occasionally, a soul comes along that defies the rules. That shakes its fist in Destiny's face. A spirit neither living nor dead, blessed and yet eternally cursed. Trapped in one world and belonging in another, these lost souls find their way home...

In the dream world...  
  
_The pirate sits on the deck of his ship's ghost, and holds the young woman in his arms. She is still in her own darkness: Not awake, because her form is still there, and yet not dreaming as her Dream-self is not conscious. She is pretty, in her own way, but then most appear in the dream world as they truly are. Her light brown hair glows with glints of gold and her pale skin shines like polished alabaster. She is an Innocent, on her first trip through life, and the pirate almost feels a pang of regret at what he is going to make her do._

Then he remembers that he is a Pirate, and that making people do what he wants is, after all, what Pirates do.

The pirate begins to trace the tarnished silver strands that embrace the woman's neck. Jewels wink into and out of existence, leaving a viewer with only an impression of what they may be, tantalizing in their brief moments of glory. The design is not a simple one, though it can appear to be. It is a soul-binder, a link between the two dreamers that will allow the pirate to work his will in a world that he can no longer tread freely in.

"Time to wake up, luv. Andrea Talliver, I call your mind back to me. I summon you here, to this place, to the form that is in my arms._" The woman's eyes pop open, and the pirate holds tight to keep her from leaping away._

Andrea was disoriented. She knew something was not right, not good, not...'Am I dreaming?'_ she thought. She didn't remember falling asleep in a handsome man's arms. And the man holding her was definitely handsome, if you liked the bad boy look. Black hair, half-hidden beneath a tri-cornered hat, that couldn't decide if it wanted to be braids or dreadlocks, a Van Dyke beard that formed itself into three braids, skin tanned to a golden-brown, and his eyes...'_They should be brown,'_ she mused inwardly. The pirate's once brown eyes, still outlined with kohl, smoldered with the heat of molten gold._

Certain that he now had the woman's attention, the pirate began to talk. "I need you to do something for me, Andrea. Something no one else on Earth can do._" Andrea looked warily up into the man's eyes. The pirate sighed. "_I need you to set me free._"_

Andrea looked at the man in confusion. "Umm...who are you? And what are you doing in my head?!_" The man laughed, a low and wild sound that sent shivers down her spine and tightened things low in her gut. "_Why, I'm the one and only Captain Jack Sparrow, luv. As for what I'm doing in your head...shouldn't you be asking yourself 'What am I doing in this man's ship?' Because that is where you are, luv. Out there...in the real world._"_

_Clarity was refusing to make a house-call to Andrea's sleep-addled mind. "_Huh?_" Jack grinned. "_The house, luv, the house. I know that little twit told ye his ancestor used my ship to build it. Well, my soul was tied to my ship, long, long before his ancestor thought of using her timbers. I used to think the Pearl was freedom...and now, it's my prison._" A wistful look crossed Jack's face, and Andrea found herself lifting a hand to his cheek in an act of comfort. He flinched, then relaxed and rubbed his cheek against her palm. "_Sorry luv, that cheek's a bit used to rather unkind treatment. Now, as I was saying, the Pearl - the house you're livin' in - is my prison. It wasn't so bad the first year I was dead. Open sea, with the horizon always before us. Then me crew got a little skittish at having a ghost pop up now and then, and they decided to go pillaging a little northwards, to see if they could leave my ghost behind in the Caribbean. Then that damn Norrington attacked my ship at night, while most of me crew was out on the town. I almost feel sorry for the poor bugger. Norrington never really wanted to shoot me, you know. He was a friend of a friend, and all that. I listened in when his son read letters from him, and from the sounds of it dear William wouldn't speak to him anymore, and neither would his wife, Elizabeth._" Jack took a hold of Andrea, and forcibly rearranged her into a more comfortable listening position. "_He courted her, you know, Norrington. Saucy little wench, she was. But where was I...oh...I don't suppose ye could dream up some rum, now, could ye?_" Andrea gave Jack a blank look. "_Just visualize a glass bottle with a nice, golden liquid in it..._" Andrea sighed, and tried to bring to mind a bottle of Bacardi 151. It '_popped_' into existence next to Jack's hand, and the overjoyed pirate took a big swig...as Andrea tried not to laugh as the pirate forced himself to swallow his mouthful. "_I said 'rum', luv, 'rum'...not paint thinner!" _he sputtered indignantly as her giggles spilled out. _"But where was I? Oh yes, poor Norrington. With the full moon and all I was feeling pretty solid and didn't like that bastard trying to blow holes in my ship, savvy? One of his soldiers got it into his head to shoot at me! Me! A bloody ghost! That shot went right through my head and into one of me crew. Poor bastard about shat himself when he realized that I was already dead, but that didn't keep him from claiming the glory later when everyone wanted to know who killed the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow. No, what killed Captain Jack Sparrow was a bad case of the bloody flu, that's what. Took most of me original crew, as well._"   
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_"_Wait a minute...if members of your crew died at the same time as you, why is it you're the only one haunting me?_" Andrea's mind was steadily growing sharper, and her question was rewarded with a guilty look from Jack. "_Because I did something bloody stupid, alright? I spent ten years shipless because a former crew of mine mutinied, dumped me on an island, and then went and got themselves cursed so that I couldn't just kill the bloody lot of 'em without lifting the damn curse first. So I was a bit nervous, savvy? So after I got me _Pearl_ back, I found meself an old voodoo woman who said she could fix it so that no one could take my ship away from me ever again. I don't want to describe that ritual, but I found out later that what that witch had done was tied me very soul to the _Pearl_, and nothing short of burning every timber that was in her will ever set me free. Now, I've caused several 'accidents' in this house, and none of the _Pearl's_ original timber should still be there. But I still am!_" Jack roared._

Andrea shrank back from Jack, who seemed to grow taller, darker, with his rage. Jack quickly controlled his temper, and returned to himself. "And that, luv, is where you come in. I need you to find out what I haven't burned yet. Something is keeping me tied to this plane, and I bloody well don't like it! Seamen are supposed to become dolphins when they die, not bump around houses like somebody's daft old uncle!_" Jack suddenly looked up, and as his eyes closed Andrea could swear he was trying to scent the wind. "_We're running out of time here, luv. The sun's just about to poke his nose over that horizon, and once he does I can't keep you here. So I release ye back to your world, Andrea Talliver, but I promise ye...we will meet when the sun hides again._"_

Reality began to twist and bend around Andrea, slipping like sand and leaving her back, back in utter darkness...  
  
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_**A/N: **You know what the buttons below are for, people. Wear 'em out!_


	4. Back to Reality

_**Disclaimer:** Nope...except for Andrea, Rum and this Plot, nothing from PoTC is mine..._

**A/N:** This chapter came along a little slower than I would have liked, but I was facing a fork in the story's road. 

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I had one ending in mind, and Andrea came along and began whispering in my ear. I have to admit, I liked what she had to say. Rum also threatened to eat all of my tuna if I didn't listen to her. sigh Cats._

Ah well. But here's…

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**Chapter Four: Back to Reality**

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_In the waking world..._

The mist recoiled from Andrea's body as the sun sent its first questing rays into the darkness. It spread across the floor, stretching ever thinner until it settled, sighing, into the very grain of the floorboards. It would remain there, hidden in the very walls, until the sun slumbered once more.

Andrea woke as those first rays caressed her face. She was so tired, had she really slept? She glanced at her clock and groaned at its affirmative answer. She began to roll over and pull a pillow over her head when she felt something heavy begin to slide from her chest. She caught Rum and wondered that he did not stir at her movement. His breathing was shallow but regular, so Andrea carefully laid him on her pillow and tried to go back to sleep.

Only to curse five minutes later, slide out of bed, and prepare to strangle the maniac who was beating the door down.

"Of all the stupid, idiotic....agggghhhhrrrr!!" She normally slept in just an oversized T-shirt, and now struggled with a pair of uncooperative sweat pants. She stalked to the front door like a killer zombie, and flung it open ready to do battle. Her tormentor was in uniform but not without intelligence - she was met with a lovely aroma and a styrofoam cup held out as a peace offering.

Andrea blinked. She blinked again. Then she grabbed the very solid cup of coffee, inhaled its aroma for a heavenly second, and proceeded to carefully sip the hot liquid. Officer Norton looked at her in amusement, and barely concealed a smile. She broke away from her caffeine bliss to give him a dirty look. "Do you know what time it is?!" He couldn't keep the corners of his mouth down. "Yes...time for coffee." The dirty look became a full-out glare, and Norton held up his hands in a 'peace' gesture. "I actually came because I do need to talk to you about the house, and I didn't have time before I went on duty last night. Mind if I come in?"

Well, she couldn't deny him entry into what was, legally, his house. So with a regal gesture Andrea stepped away from the door and showed him in. She felt a quick guilty pang as they moved through the box littered living room, then scowled when she remembered that it was, after all, the butt-crack of dawn. At least he'd had the common sense to bring coffee. If he hadn't, his jail would have been graced with a cop-killer.

They made themselves comfortable on the living room's only remaining piece of seating furniture - an ancient sofa that had seen its glory days when the Great War had been fought. Norton fidgeted once he was seated, turning his hat over and over in his hands. Andrea curled up on the opposite end, cradling the cup of liquid life and wondering what on Earth Norton needed to talk to her about.

"So...how did you sleep last night, Miss Talliver?" Andrea frowned. "I thought you were here because of the house, Mr. Norton. Or is it 'Officer' right now?" He gave her a nervous smile. "No, I'm off-duty now, so it's 'Mister'..."

An awkward silence began to seep into the air, while Andrea sipped at her coffee and Norton struggled to regain his equilibrium. "I slept..." "I wanted..." "Oh." they both said. "Sorry, you first." They stared at each other, then Andrea snickered just as Norton smiled in relief. "Honestly, Miss Talliver, I would like to know how you slept last night. I thought that I might be interrupting you..." "You did. Hence the grumpiness." Andrea nodded and held her cup aloft. "The coffee is, however, very much appreciated."

Norton smiled a genuine smile. "I may be a bit rude at times, Miss Talliver, but there is one thing that I am not, and that is suicidal." Andrea tried desperately not to snort coffee through her nose, and Norton arched an eyebrow. "My mother was not a morning person, either, so learning to have coffee ready at dawn was a survival technique in this house."

Andrea looked at him in surprise. "You grew up here?" Norton's face turned serious. "That's why I need to talk to you.

I wasn't entirely honest with you about the house's history, and the history of my family here. There's something about nightfall that makes me nervous talking about it, and when I tell you about it I think you'll understand. Yes, I grew up here. At the time, this was my father's house, and he had inherited it from his father, and so on and so forth back to the ancestor I was telling you about yesterday. It was just my folks, my sis and me living here back then...or so we thought."

Norton shifted uncomfortably on the couch under Andrea's scrutinizing gaze. "Now, I don't want to make you nervous, Miss Talliver, but some very odd things happened in this house while I was growing up. Bad things. My sister...she had a sleep-walking problem. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, and find her standing in the hallway, muttering to herself...her eyes would be open, but she wouldn't be 'seeing' anything, you know what I mean? The first time I caught her, I was only six and she was fourteen. And I will never forget, Miss Talliver, trying to shake my sister awake only to have her look at me, with dark brown eyes, and tell me 'Go back to bed, there's a good little lad." Norton paused. "Now, what bothers me about this isn't that she told me to go back to bed. It's not that she called me 'little lad', when her nickname for me was 'Runt'. My sister had _blue_ eyes, Miss Talliver. Not green, not hazel, and certainly not brown. Forget-me-not blue."

Norton paused while Andrea took his revelation in, then renewed his tale. "It gets better from there. What started as mere sleep-walking turned into unconscious pyromancy. We caught the first fire, and my mom tried to explain it away, saying that Sue must have been trying to light a candle in her sleep. Now, the fire was in the living room here, and if you look closely at the doorway over there you can tell where we had to replace a section of the wall. We found a few burnt matches near there, but we never found anything that could have been a candle. My dad insisted on taking Sue to a shrink, and the doc told my folks that Sue was sleepwalking because she felt insecure. His recommendation was for her to get a pet. So then nothing would do for my parents except that Sue got a pet, and being her she immediately decided on a cat.

Oh, it was an evil thing. Tuck had lost one ear in a cat fight before we took him in, and I swear that when that tabby looked at me I could see him thinking evil kitty thoughts. But, while she had Tuck, Sue's sleepwalking stopped. She still complained that she wasn't sleeping well at night, but she wasn't roaming around burning stuff, you know? So things continued like that for a couple of years, and then Tuck died in his sleep one morning. The vet said he must have eaten a poisoned rat, or something, because there wasn't any other reason for him to die.

I may not have liked Tuck, but he was smart. He wouldn't have eaten a rat he hadn't personally killed, unless it had been chopped up into itty-bitty pieces for him. The very next night, Sue started sleepwalking again, and it was worse than it had ever been before." Norton paused, grief warring with composure on his face. "There used to be another room, a study, by the bedroom here on the first floor. Sue went in there one night and lit all of Dad's books on fire. Somehow, the door got locked, and no one could get Sue out...before..." Norton's voice failed him, and Andrea hurriedly put down the coffee and grabbed a Kleenex. Wordlessly handing it to Norton, the man nodded in thanks and blew his nose. "Anyhow, my parents redid the wall so that it's part of the outside wall now, and decided not to rebuild the study. Can't say as I blame them. When I was able to move out into town, I did, and I've been there ever since. My mom died a few years ago, from cancer, and when she passed away my dad decided to move in with my uncle up town. Said that this house had given him too much bad with the good over the years, and that I was welcome to it.

I like my place, so I decided to start renting this out. The first year it was rented by an older lady with five cats. Never any trouble from her, other than convincing her that five cats was enough even for this house. Then, she suddenly decided that she needed to find somewhere else to live. 'It's no offense on you, dear, but me kitties and I feel like someone's been watching us. Someone who's not happy we're there. Someone who's not a cat person, if you know what I mean?' Well, I didn't know what she meant until I got a young couple living in the house for a few months, and, I'm sure you can guess, the little misses started to sleepwalk. When supposedly she'd never done so before in her life. I'm sure, by now, that you wouldn't be surprised to hear that they didn't have a cat. They decided to find somewhere else to spend their summers, and I decided to do some research. I may not be the Chief, yet, but I can get access to all the records that the Police and Fire stations have up town. And quickly. Guess what I found out?"

Andrea sat mesmerized as Norton's face grew even more serious. "No less than twenty fires have been started in this home since the Civil War. They all happened at night, and whenever a cause was listed, it was 'accidental'. If anyone felt like explaining, it was usually something like 'Disturbed girl knocked over candle in her sleep.' What do you want to bet me that those girls didn't have cats, either?"

Andrea chewed over what Norton had told her. "So...I take it you think there's some sort of ghost? One who doesn't like cats and does like possessing girls between the ages of fourteen and, oh, let's say, thirty-five?" Norton nodded, and Andrea burst out laughing. 

"Oh, I'm sorry...it's just...it seems a bit ridiculous." Norton grabbed Andrea's hands in his own, startling her. He stared deep into her green eyes until he was sure he had her undivided attention. "Ridiculous...perhaps. But you still haven't told me how you slept last night, Miss Talliver. And I haven't seen your cat since I got here. So pardon me, ma'am, if I am concerned for your safety while you are in my house."

Andrea fidgeted, but Norton didn't take the hint to let go of her hands. "Rum's still asleep. Cats are lazy like that, you know. I slept" and she hesitated for a second "fairly well last night." Norton seized on her wording as quickly as he had seized her hands.

"Only fairly well?" She arched an eyebrow. "Considering that my computer crashed several times last night and that not being able to get any work done made me extremely frustrated, yes, only fairly well. Now if you don't mind, Mister Norton, I would like to either get some more sleep or get a shower. And I'm not comfortable doing either with you here. I appreciate your warning, and I will let you know if anything...odd...happens."

Andrea suddenly remembered a flash of golden brown eyes, and black waves...then shook off the memory and continued talking. "So if you wouldn't mind..."

Norton dropped her hands and stood up, offering Andrea a hand as he did so. She might have been a little aggravated, but not enough to refuse the gesture. That would have been just plain rude. She escorted Norton to the door, then hesitated as he strode through it with every indication of bruised male pride. "Mister Norton?" He half-turned towards her. "If you're so worried about me being here, why did you rent the house to me in the first place?" Norton smiled a sad little smile. "Because you're a writer, Miss Talliver, and writers tend to know about these things. Besides," he paused, "_you_ have a cat." He strode to his truck with Andrea gazing thoughtfully at his back.

She was still gazing at him as his truck pulled out of the drive, and it was only when the dust began to settle that she went back inside.

"Da da da dum...and really bad eggs..." Andrea blinked. Why was she singing? She glanced at the clock and groaned. There was no way she was going to be getting back to bed any time soon. That left a shower. She popped back into the bedroom to lay out a change of clothes, and to check on Rum. Despite what she'd told Norton, it wasn't like Rum to be asleep this long after she'd gotten up. He was still curled up on her bed, so still and quiet that only the steady rise and fall of his ribs betrayed the fact that he was only _practicing_ for death. Andrea shrugged, spared him a quick pat, and went into the bathroom.

She turned the shower on as high and as hot as it would go. Her muscles ached and cried out for hot, soothing water. And an itching in the back of her head made her want concealing steam. Andrea looked into the mirror. "Silly girl," she said to her reflection, "Did Norton spook you with his ghost story?" Her reflection looked back at her, still looking spooked, when it suddenly winked. Andrea blinked. "I did not just see that...lack of sleep...that's what's wrong, lack of sleep." Her reflection, while still her own, didn't look convinced. Andrea checked the water, adjusted it to be a little cooler, and then quickly stripped. She spared a quick glance at the mirror, then did a double-take. Fine purple lines were etched into the skin around her collarbone, like fresh bruises painted onto her skin. Andrea brushed a fingertip across the lines, and glanced down at herself.

No lines.

She looked back in the mirror, and they were plainly visible..."It almost looks like...a necklace..." she mused. The mirror fogged over, and she shuddered. "Oh get a hold of yourself, Andy! Next thing you know, you're going to be looking for axe murderers in the hall and creepy music to be playing out of nowhere. You need a nap, and if Rum is still asleep when we're done, we are, by God, taking one."

That settled in her own head, Andrea jumped in the shower and proceeded with getting clean. The hot water soothed her aches, and the soap suds washed away some of her stress as well as the grime from the day before. "How silly...ghosts my ass...probably found someone who will pay more rent on the place and now he's trying to scare me out. Jerk." She turned off the shower and reached out to grab the towel she'd left on the rack, then frowned when she couldn't feel it. She poked her head out, and scowled. It was lying in a sodden heap on the bathroom floor. "Great...just great." The linen closet was just a few feet away, so she jumped out and grabbed a towel. She dried herself off, and was toweling her hair dry when she glanced in the mirror.

Her shriek woke up Rum.

The exhausted cat came running and hissing weakly into the bathroom, even as his human stood on trembling legs, trying quickly to wrap the towel around her nude body. Quickly fading in the fogged mirror were three simple words...

"Nice show, luv."

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_**A/N**: Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed this. It is way past my bedtime, so I apologize for any errors I may have missed. A lot more backstory than I really wanted snuck into this, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Norton is getting a crush on Andrea. I have an even worse suspicion that Andrea may be getting a crush back._

Silly girl. Jack's going to have to deal with this...

Unfortunately, I will not be able to update this story again until Sunday night. I will, however, be busily writing the next installment, so hopefully by Monday morning I will  
be able to upload a few more chapters.


	5. When Walls Talk

_**Disclaimer**: C'mon folks, you know the drill...  
_  
_**A/N:** I'm going to have to rent the movie "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." I've never seen it, but its description at Yahoo! Movies has me confident that I'm not treading on copyrighted ground as far as my plot is concerned...though I am on just the other side of its fence.  
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**Chapter Five: When Walls Talk  
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Andrea spent the rest of the day babying Rum and convincing herself that she had NOT seen a fading message in her bathroom mirror. Well, trying to convince herself. Okay, she was convinced that she had seen a message in the mirror and what she was really trying very hard to do was convince herself that she wasn't crazy.

Rum stuck close to her side as she cleaned the first floor of the house. Its damage from being unoccupied wasn't as bad as what Norton had led her to believe. There were a few spots where water damage had occurred, but for the most part the first floor just needed a few coats of fresh paint. By noon, she was ready to quit cleaning and try to figure out what the problem with her computer was.

With Rum snoozing in her lap, Andrea had one hand on her cell phone as her computer booted. "Yes!" she shouted, waking Rum from his catnap, as Windows XP successfully loaded and allowed her to log in. She inserted her disc, and quickly skimmed over her last chapter. "Hmmm..." Andrea closed her eyes and smiled as she typed a verbal description of the scene in her head.

Oh, the fine tuning would come later. What happened now, this communion between Tale and Talespinner, was no less a sacred act of creation than that of the Universe itself.

With a few stops and starts, it didn't take Andrea very long before her chapter was done. She hit "Save" and began the serious work of finding flaws within the text. She frowned as she read. What she meant to write was there but...somehow off.

Her hero had blue eyes, why did she write that he had brown? And he rode a black horse, not sailed a black ship! Andrea growled as the inconsistencies began to mount. Had she been writing on a piece of paper it would have been crumpled into a ball and Rum would have been chasing it around the floor. As it was the slow and tedious process of salvaging her chapter took Andrea the better part of the afternoon, and she was unsurprised to see the sun lowering as she hit "Save" for the final time.

What did surprise her was the fact that Rum napped through the entire writing process. Normally he'd have been jumping in her lap every five minutes begging for food or attention. "Poor little guy." Andrea said as she skritched his ears. "What did you tire yourself out doing?"

The cat jerked awake as the sounds of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" filled the air. The music stopped as Andrea picked up her cell phone. "Hello?" "Andrea...it's '_kkrss'_ Norton. Are you '_psss' _ anything?" "You're going to have to speak a little more clearly, there's a lot of static." "Oh...'_kkrrss_' I was just wondering if you'd '_sssss' _join me for dinner. There's a '_pssss'_ diner about three 'kkkrrrss_'_ miles down the road from you, the food's '_pssshhhcraacckllee_'." "I don't know, I'd hate to leave Rum here alone..." "Bring him. The lady who '_ssssss_' the place loves cats, she'll '_whooosh_' have a dish of '_sssssss_' for him."

In between bursts of static, Norton gave Andrea driving directions to the diner. Rum stared at Andrea as she changed into a clean, and very attractive, outfit. "What?" she said defensively. "It's NOT a date. So stop looking at me like that!"

'_Liiiikkkee whaaaat?_'  
Andrea stood stock-still, then shook herself. "Rum, I'm letting my imagination run away with me again. For a moment, I could have sworn I heard someone talking back to me. Quite the echo in here, eh?" She laughed weakly. Andrea knew there wasn't an echo on the first floor, knew it with the certainty of someone who had cursed - loudly - whenever she'd dropped a piece of furniture she'd been moving that day.

'_Echoooo....Hahahahahahahahaha_'

Andrea looked around uneasily. "Yep. Just an echo. 'Cause there's no such things as ghosts. Just echoes." She scooped Rum off of the bed and quickly made her way out the door.

As the sun dropped below the horizon, the "echo" seeped from the walls. It was able to take a more solid form than the previous night. Binding with a mortal always gave the ghost a boost.

Jack smiled. Even if the cat was there, he'd be able to enter the girl's mind without hindrance now. Sleeping, waking, it mattered not as long as the sun was down. He would be able to do much more than spy on her or make the walls talk.

As soon as she came back, Captain Jack Sparrow was going to have some fun.

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_**A/N: ** More is on the way...thought I'd surprise you all and have this bit up a little early. It's a tad boring, but necessary._

Oh, and I have a feeling the story's rating is going to change for the next chapter...expect it up by Sunday night. winks


	6. The Night of No Sleep

_**Disclaimer:** Same old, same old, though I do think that I need to include Daniel Norton on the list of "My" characters. He's been playing a much bigger role than I first imagined he would._

**A/N **Well, the ratings not going to change in this chapter but there will be quite a teaser. So feel free to use your imaginations a little bit. 'Meyari grins evilly'_ I'm sure Jack would want you to. I am thinking about putting a "missing scene" on my personal website - I have a feeling y'all will know the scene of which I speak. R& R'ing will, of course, determine whether or not I am motivated to do so._

And...is it just me, or have quite a few "Haunted House" stories popped up in the POTC world since I started writing this? My, I feel like such a trendsetter...yet they haven't R and R'd, the ingrates...'winks_'  
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**Chapter Six: The Night of No Sleep  
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Andrea waltzed up to the house feeling like she was on Cloud Nine. He had kissed her, Officer "Call me Daniel" Norton had really kissed her. In front of about a dozen witnesses. And not any run of the mill, "Kissing Granny Goodnight" smooch, either. He'd waited until they were awkwardly exchanging good nights by her car. The faint moon-light had bounced off Daniel's blonde hair as he'd shifted his feet, and a shy glint had shone from his pale blue eyes as he'd lifted a hand gently to Andrea's cheek.

"I had a really good time tonight." he'd said softly. "Me, too..." Andrea had breathed out, heart hammering in her chest. He'd leaned in, giving her every opportunity to pull away, before placing his lips on hers in a fiery connection. He'd tasted like cinnamon, his lips a soft, startling contrast to the close-cropped Vandyke that he wore. What had broken them up was a muffled "Mreow!" from the protesting cat being squashed between their bodies. If he hadn't been leaving to go back on duty Andrea would have been very tempted to invite him home. Her last relationship had ended two years prior and the hunger that the kiss stirred up in her was one that mere food could not satisfy

Rum now rode on Andrea's shoulder as she mounted the porch steps. She paused as she began to take out her keys, swearing that she had left the porch light on. "Ah well, maybe the bulb burned out." Andrea was in too good of a mood to be upset over a bulb but when she went to unlock the door it opened at her touch. Alarmed, Andrea began to retreat towards her car, pulling out her cell phone as she backed away. Rum gathered himself and leaped off her shoulder, stalking with lashing tail towards the open front door. "Rum!" Andrea hissed as she began dialing 911. "Get back here!"

Static crackled loud in Andrea's ear as she swore and tried not to drop her phone. Rum darted through the door, and Andrea frantically looked around for some kind of weapon. She should be driving for help, she should be doing anything but going through that dark doorway alone and unarmed, yet Andrea found herself timidly sliding through the door, praying that there wasn't a robber or a psycho-murderer inside.

The house was still. Not a breeze disturbed the air, and Andrea heard only mild echoes of static as she strained her ears. She slid along the wall, one shadow among many, thanking God that she had chosen to wear quiet shoes to dinner. Her hand reached  
slowly, ever so slowly, towards the front room's light switch. She fumbled with it, her hand finding the switch plate, and she shrieked as another hand grabbed hers. 

"By the Powers, woman, do you ever do anything but scream?" Andrea frantically tried to pull her hand out of the iron grip that held it. A body, cool but quite solid, pinned hers to the wall as the intruder dodged her knee and her foot which should have connected with his instep. "You're not going to hit me, young missy, so you might as well stop trying." Andrea trembled as she felt hair, loose and long, brush against her cheek. A puff of cool breath caressed the skin beneath her ear. "My, luv, don't tell me you forget your dreams so quickly?"

Light flared in the kitchen and filtered into the front room, illuminating her assailant. He was taller than her by only a few inches, with messy brown hair and an outfit straight out of a bad romance novel. Andrea's eyes widened as she recognized him. "That's it, luv,  
time to remember." Jack said soothingly, encouragingly. "Yoooouuu...you're not real. You're a dream!" she said accusingly. Jack threw his head back and roared with laughter. "That I am, luv, but I'm as real as you are. Perhaps not the 'flesh and blood' sort of real most people hope for, but real enough." Andrea stared at the man? Ghost? that still pinned her to the wall, and her eyes narrowed.

"What did you do with my cat?!"

An evil smile slowly shaped Jack's lips. "Oh, don't worry luv, he's safe enough. Live and breathing as I'm sure you'd prefer, but he's in no position to be interrupting us now, savvy?" Andrea's trembling began to escape her control and became a fine shiver. A look of concern bloomed on the pirate's face. He liked a good prank as much as anyone, but..." Here now, luv, you're not afraid of ol' Jack, are you?"

"Who, me? Afraid? Of a fuckin' ghost that's currently pinning me to a wall and won't tell me where he stashed my cat?" Andrea's fear was quickly turning into indignation. Jack slowly backed off, holding his hands in the air as he smiled. "Now, luv, just making sure you're not going to hurt yerself. Or let that cat out of his bag." 

Andrea warily pushed away from the wall as Jack regally gestured towards the couch. He caught her eyes slipping towards the door, and he mentally made the door slam shut and its lock slide into place with a very audible click. "Now, now, luv, there's no reason to be runnin' from ol' Jack. I'm not going to hurt you. Now I do suggest that you take a seat, young missy, because we have much to discuss." Andrea heard the refrigerator door open and shut, and tried hard not to whimper as the bottle of Captain Morgan that had been in her freezer floated into the room and settled onto the coffee table. She sank onto the couch, and the ghost settled onto the opposite end. It was an eerie parody of the way she and Daniel had been sitting just that morning. "You look like you need a drink, luv. And to be quite honest, I'd prefer if you had one. We're linked now, you and I. While this does allow me to appear in front of you right now in a solid state, it's not exactly a one-way bridge." Andrea looked at him in confusion, and Jack sighed. "Meaning, I can feel some of what you feel now. If you get drunk, I'll get drunk. If someone makes you angry, I'm going to get angry. If someone scares you, I'm trembling in my boots same as you. And when someone catches your eye..." Jack paused as a blush started creeping into Andrea's cheeks. "I see I don't have to spell it out for you."

Andrea took a slow pull on the bottle as she mulled over what Jack had told her. Getting drunk sounded good. Getting drunk sounded very, very good. She was no longer as worried about Rum. From the hints Jack had dropped about him being live, safe and "in the bag" she figured that he was probably in the carrying case she'd transported him here in. "So why the talking walls and messages in the mirror? And what the hell were you doing spying on me in the shower? Oh my God..." Andrea groaned as a slow grin spread across the pirate's face. "You pulled my towel off the rack! You bastard! What else have you done?"

Jack settled back on the couch with every appearance of comfort. "Don't blame me for eyeing a beautiful woman when she's paraded in front of me. Your computer crashing was me, though I will admit I was trying to figure out how to use it to talk to you. Your cat getting locked in the broom closet yesterday was also me. In case your friend Norton didn't make it entirely clear to you, ghosts and cats don't mix. Cats were once worshipped as gods, you know, as Keepers of the Underworld, and the little bastards have never forgotten it. Your phone cutting out was also me. I'd been waiting all day to appear before you in the flesh, and I'll admit I was less than happy at having you run out on me moments before I could do so. I'll also admit that I'm the reason your cell phone wouldn't work a little while ago. I can't reach far outside this house, I'll admit, but you're going to have to go farther away than the porch to get away from me." He reached a   
hand towards Andrea's neck, stopping millimeters away from her bare skin as she tried not to recoil. He traced the invisible pattern on her neck, and his voice became almost wistful. "As I said, we're linked, you and I."

Andrea reached for the rum as the pirate settled back on his side of the couch. He was getting closer, she noticed as she pulled one more swallow.

"So...you want me to do what? Burn the house down? 'Cause that's what it sounded like last night, and Daniel made it pretty clear that that's what you tried to get his sister to do." Fear stiffened Andrea's spine. "Oh my God...brown eyes. You were possessing her, weren't you?" Jack nodded, and had the grace to look sheepish. "I can't see what's in this plane of existence very well when I'm not solid. And the farther the moon is from full, the less up to par I'm feeling, savvy? So I'd send Suzanne off to a nice little dream world full of butterflies and kittens and what not, and I borrowed her eyes to have a look-see. But don't you dare think" and his voice grew stern "for one moment that I got that poor girl killed. I had nothing to do with it. What Norton didn't tell you was that Sue and their old man got into a row that day about some fellow she'd been kipping out at night to see. He conked her over the head and threw her into the study while making sure there was no way for her to get out to see her lad. The bastard didn't even look where he'd thrown her - there was a few candles burning on his desk, and I'll let you guess from there what happened. Old Norton didn't leave this house because of any memories I'd given him, luv. It was because of the memories he'd given himself."

Andrea mulled over what Jack told her, and took another pull of rum. The world wasn't nice and wavy, yet, but given enough time and it would be. "So what happened to her cat?" Jack snorted. "Alright, that one was me. I was trying to talk to Sue in her sleep, and that damned cat butted in on the conversation much as your Rum did last night. Only I will tell you, love, a nine-year-old street-fighting cat will put up a hell of a fight compared to a nine-month old kitten. Don't ever die in a dream luv, chances are your real self won't survive it."

Andrea started to take another pull of rum, and then lowered the bottle as she looked suspicously at Jack. "What did you do with my cat, Mr. Sparrow?" Jack sighed "It's Captain, CAPTAIN, Sparrow luv, but I think it would be more appropriate to call me Jack now, don't you think?" Andrea took a quick pull before deliberately capping the bottle and setting it meaningfully on the coffee table. "That still doesn't answer my question, Captain Sparrow. What did you do with my cat?"

Jack grinned wickedly and began inching closer to Andrea. "What would you give to find out, luv?" Andrea stared at him in disbelief. "What are you...oh, no. NO, do you hear me?" "Just a kiss, luv. One little kiss, and I'll tell you all about where I stashed your precious Rum." He hovered over her, a spectral arm firmly planted on either side of her, waiting for her answer. She nodded slowly - one kiss couldn't be that bad, and it would be worth it if he told her where her cat was.

Jack slowly lowered his head to hers, their eyes locked. Andrea's heart began pounding in her chest as the tension mounted. A tongue, as cool to the touch as the rest of the ghost, slowly and deftly licked her lips. "Hmm..." Jack purred. "You taste like rum, luv."

As Jack's lips pressed on hers, Andrea closed her eyes and forgot what, exactly, she was kissing. If Daniel's kiss had been fire, Jack's was ice, ice so cold it burned the breath out of her lungs. She moaned, her lips parting slightly to allow his tongue to slide gently into her mouth. It had been too long, far too long, and she needed this, needed it so very badly. Daniel's kiss had been a treasure, but Jack's promised far more than silver and gold. It didn't help that she knew her feeling of need was being amplified  
through Jack and by him, or that she knew that he was feeling the same need that she was.

Jack slowly pulled his mouth from hers, and Andrea couldn't stop a little sound of protest. Her eyes snapped open as she felt Jack's hand - Jack's very solid and warm hand - run its fingers through her hair. The cool breeze of the sea washed over her, and while she could still feel the couch beneath her she saw the deck of the Black Pearl outlined all around her. She looked around in wonder, and a low laugh rumbled from Jack. "Now you're seeing into my world, luv."

Jack began to pull back from her, and Andrea cut short another sound of protest. He continued to lean over her on his very warm and solid arms. "That almost sounded like an invitation, Andrea Talliver." He began nibbling his way down her neck, sending chills down her spine. When she arched her back involuntarily Jack wrapped an arm around her, supporting her and crushing her body into his own.

The resulting sensations almost caused Admiral Estrogen to order Sergeant Reason to salute and march right out of the room. As Jack pushed back her shirt enough to nibble her collarbone, Andrea cut short another moan. "Tell me where my cat is, Jack, and you'll get your invitation." The pirate glanced up with heated eyes and grinned the grin of the truly wicked. "He's out in the back room in that kitty-carrier of yours. Quite safe, I assure you. Now, my dear Andrea, do I have my invitation to bed you?"

Her smile grew to match his as she slowly nodded her head.

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_**A/N:** That's it for now, folks. Remember that missing scene I said I needed many reviews to motivate me to write? Well, this is where it's supposed to be. So make me happy._

Review. I dares ye.


	7. Interlude

_**A/N:** Well, the fans have spoken. The missing chapter, "Fire and Ice", is now posted at my personal website. It's rating is definitely NC-17. You can read it by going to my profile here at Fanfiction Dot Net and clicking on my homepage link – then click on Adult Fanfiction on my personal site. Sorry about all the re-routing, folks – for some reason Fanfiction Dot Net isn't letting me post links in my stories. Grr'n'stuff._

_The next installment of this story, "A Rude Awakening", will not be up as soon as I had hoped as I put much more effort into "Fire and Ice" than I had expected. I will try to finish writing it soon._

_And so, since I am told that I cannot merely post an Author's Update, we shall have a brief interlude..._

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**Interlude**

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Andrea awoke on the couch as dawn's first rays filtered in through the window. She stretched languorously on the couch, unsuccessfully holding back a huge yawn. Her clothes were a mess - rumpled and ripped. She looked as though she had been through a hurricane. '_If that's how lusty pirates normally were' _she thought quietly to herself '_it's no wonder they pillaged every port they came to!'_

She heard a low, piteous meowing coming from the back of the kitchen. "Oh my God, Rum!" Andrea ran to where the poor cat was trapped in his cage. She carefully let him out, avoiding his claws as the enraged kitty stalked out of his prison. "I'm so sorry, Rum. How can I make it up to you? Tuna? Cream?"

The cat glowered at her, stalked to his food dishes, and gave her a Look. She could almost hear him saying "Do not think you can bribe me with food, mortal. But I am hungry, and thirsty, and so you may feed me. Now."

She laughed weakly at his theatrics, and proceeded to provide both the promised tuna and cream. As Rum wolfed them down, she sighed ruefully. "Well, there goes lunch."

She walked back into the living room, and wrinkled her nose. There was no sign of Jack, but the room reeked of sex. Andrea sighed. "It figures. It didn't even happen on this plane of existence, but I still have SOME sort of mess to clean up."

She carefully opened the room's ancient windows, then took a better look at herself. "Well, I guess it's shower time for me."

Andrea prayed that Daniel would wait until a more decent hour to call on her. She knew that she'd only gotten an hour of sleep, max, before dawn had woken her up. She really, really, REALLY didn't want to explain to Daniel why it was she was taking a shower when he knew she'd prefer to be asleep, or - even worse - explain why the front room now had that distinctive odor.

As hot water cascaded over her tired body, Andrea mentally smacked herself. "He's not my boyfriend. I'm not even sure dinner last night could be considered a date. He kissed me...so what? So...I still like him, that's what." She sighed in confusion. Her liaison with Jack had cured her immediate problem of horniness, but it had complicated her life in other ways.

Speaking of the devil, where was he? It wasn't like him not to be pulling some sort of prank on her now that he was confined to the house. Andrea turned off the water, grabbed a towel and carefully dried herself off. She frowned as she glanced at her neck, then used her towel to wipe the steam off of the mirror. The markings of her binding showed up a rich purple color in the mirror, but where they had been physically invisible before they were now a light shade of lilac.

"Oh boy...I guess I'm not wearing that tank top any time soon, after all." She dropped the towel on the floor, no longer caring if she ran naked through the house. Jack had already gotten the full show, after all. As she entered the bedroom, she could not help but grin.

She had left her bed a mess the day before, and it was now beautifully made and turned down. The pillows were fluffed and adorned with a single red rose from the garden outside. After putting the rose in a glass of water, Andrea gratefully slipped between the cool sheets and into sweet oblivion.

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	8. A Rude Awakening

_**Disclaimer: **PoTC characters, not mine. Everybody else, mine. So no taking._

**A/N**: My apologies to all of my readers that this chapter is arriving much later than I would have liked. Aunt Flo and Uncle Flu ganged up and decided to hit me at the same time. Then my Muse packed up and left for awhile as I recovered. sigh But we're feeling somewhat better now...

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A Rude Awakening

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Rum padded into the bedroom, leaping onto the foot of the bed. Quietly, carefully, he stalked the length of Andrea's sleeping body. He sat at her shoulder, solemnly staring at her closed eyes. There was so much his human didn't know, and that Rum couldn't tell her...or could he? If a cat's brow could furrow, Rum's would have. He remembered clearly being in the dream world with her. He just didn't know how he'd gotten there. Rum did a cat version of a shrug and curled up at Andrea's side, being careful not to wake her.

As he began to drift into sleep Rum let his instincts take over and guide him into a lucid dreaming state. He found himself in a white hallway with many wooden doors. Rum padded along the corridor, sniffing as he went. He knew the scent he was looking for and before long he found it behind an oak door with a tarnished silver handle. It was too high for him to reach in cat-form. With little effort Rum resumed the human-shape he'd used to fight the ghost pirate and opened the door.

"Hmmm...well, this is different." Rum stepped through the doorway into a lush green world of trees, trees and more trees. A well-beaten path lay beckoning before him. As he stepped onto it the door behind him disappeared, but Rum wasn't worried.

He was only dreaming, after all.

Rum found Andrea at the trail's end, a bush-lined cliff with an excellent view of the field below. Andrea was scribbling furiously in a leather-bound book as she watched two men on horseback fight. One rode a white horse and wore white armor while his opponent rode a black horse and wore black arms. A maiden on a chestnut mare watched faithfully on the sidelines, waiting to see which knight would prevail and win the right to her heart.

Rum yawned. "So, even when you dream you can't let your writing go?" Andrea whirled her head to face him even as he slid down to sit beside her on the cliff. Bewildered, she took in the slim lad who had plopped so rudely down next to her. His hair was short and spiky, a dusty brown tipped with black. His ears were slightly pointed and seemed to have much more hair than a normal teenager - for so he appeared to be - should have on his ears. His clothing echoed his hair in color. He was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, but Andrea couldn't decide if they were brown and black or just a black that had gotten very dirty. His hands also seemed odd - his fingers were short and stubby and the nails were thick and filed to a dull point. When he turned to face her, Andrea gasped. His eyes were bright yellow and his teeth! When he smiled his canines curved into delicate fangs.

"Who the hell are you?!" Rum laughed softly. "What, don't recognize your own cat? You could have let me out of that cage before you and lover-ghost went off to play last night, you know. I was stuck in there for hours!" Andrea looked at him in shock.

"Rumplestiltskin? But how did you...I mean, why did you...what the hell is going on?!"

Rum sighed. "Look, princess, we haven't got a lot of time here. That ghost wore himself out last night, making himself physical in the real world and then dragging you both into the dream world. If it weren't for that I wouldn't have been able to enter your dream just now, and I don't know when he'll be coming back. Do you have any idea of what he's done to you?" Andrea shook her head.

"I thought as much." Rum drew himself up, trying to look serious. "That ghost put a soul-bind on you. He can feel what you feel, hear what you hear, and occasionally, he'll even be able to think what you think. Has he said anything to you about what it is that he wants?" Andrea nodded slowly. "All he's said is that his soul is bound to the ship that the house was made out of, and that his soul won't be free until every last piece of the ship is destroyed, preferably by fire. He's also sworn that he's burned every piece of his ship that he could find, and he wants me to track down the last pieces and burn it for him."

Rum rubbed his chin. "A lot of what limits ghosts exists only in their own minds. For example, your ghost..."

"Jack" Andrea supplied. "His name is Jack."

Rum nodded, then continued. "Your Jack seems only able to come out at night, and resides in the walls in a semi-conscious state during the day. His ability to enter our world seems to be linked to the moon - for example, as the moon waxes he'll be able to appear more solid, and when the moon wanes he will begin to lose his ability to appear. Now, he believes that he has overcome this limitation by linking with you, which allows him to pull energy off of you. In case you haven't noticed, you've been trying to eat and sleep a bit more in the last few days than is normal for you." Andrea nodded, and narrowed her eyes. "You seem to know a lot for someone who says he's my tabby cat and looks like a punk kid. Who are you, really?"

Rum sighed. "In this life? Your cat and spirit guardian. In my last life, I was a monk who devoted my time to the study of the paranormal and supernatural. When I died, the Powers That Be told me that I was being sent back as a cat to guard someone who would be gravely endangered by a malicious spirit. Now, back to the subject. Your Jack thinks he is bound to this house, and that he cannot leave it." Rum reached out and delicately hooked Andrea's necklace on the end of a nail. "It is very unusual for someone to bind their soul to something, even more unusual for that person to bind twice in his or her lifetime, and unheard of for a person to be bound to two things simultaneously. Where, my dear Andrea, did your Jack get this necklace, I wonder?"

Before Andrea could reply, Rum resumed speaking. "Regardless, your Jack believes that it is the house that is keeping him on this plane of existence. It is possible that if the last remnants of his ship were burned he would be able to move on. So what have we seen that is from his ship? Think, princess, it is something you see every time you enter that house. It's practically staring you in the face." Andrea thought, then groaned. "The ship's wheel! I'd gotten so used to seeing it that it just became part of the wall to me."

"Exactly. And since it was part of the wall to you, it was part of the wall to Jack, and probably to every luckless female that he's possessed for his little look-sees. I suggest that when you wake up you have an honest, heart-to-heart chat with Daniel Norton. I don't suggest telling him that you did the horizontal mambo with his family ghost last night, but I do think you should tell him that you believe the haunting will stop if that wheel is burned."

Andrea stared quietly out at the valley as Rum ceased talking. "Why am I getting the impression that you don't think burning the wheel will work?" Rum laid his head on Andrea's shoulder, briefly rubbing against it. "Belief is a powerful thing, my dear. If Jack believes firmly enough that everything tying him to the real world has been severed, he may be able to move on. If not..." His voice trailed off as his eyes stared off into the distance.

Andrea nudged Rum so that he moved and looked her in the eye. "If not?" she prompted. Rum sighed. "Then it isn't the house keeping him there."

Andrea and Rum sat in a companionable silence, each overlooking the valley while mulling over their own thoughts. The combatants had paused when Andrea's attention was taken away, and now resumed their battle with full vigor as the maiden watched from the sidelines. After numerous blows and much maneuvering, the black knight unhorsed the white as the maiden cheered.

"Rum?" "Yes, Andrea?" "What if I don't want Jack to move on?" Rum had been expecting the question, but he still didn't know how to answer it. "Are you in love with him?" Andrea sat in silence as the black knight dismounted and plunged his sword through his enemy's heart. "Maybe. I don't know. All I do know is that I don't want to lose him, Rum. Not now. Not when I'm just getting to know him. And if I burn that wheel, it'll be like I'm killing him, like I'm erasing him from existence. I don't think I can do it."

The pair looked on as the black knight pulled his sword from his opponent's body and used it to behead the white knight. Head in hand, the black knight presented it to the maiden, kneeling and kissing her hand. The two remounted their horses, the maiden carrying the bloody head in one hand as a trophy, and rode off into the woods.

"And what do you intend to do, if you can't put the ghost out of his misery? You can't purchase the house, if that's what you're thinking. For one thing, you don't have the money, even if your book sells well and Norton cuts you a good deal. And then there's the problem of Norton himself. If you move into his ancestral home permanently he's not going to understand you suddenly turning down his advances, especially after that kiss he laid on you last night. And what kind of future would you have with Jack, anyway? Not to mention what would happen to me if that ghost knew he and I had to co-exist for the rest of my life." Rum added bitterly.

Rum looked deep into Andrea's eyes. "If this was meant to be, the two of you would have met under better circumstances, Andrea. In fact, it may be that you need to free him in this life so that you two will meet as humans in the next, I don't know. But what you and I both know that you need to do this. I'm sorry, Andrea."

Rum's ears twitched, and he shot up from his sitting position. As the world began to fade from around them, he said "Someone's knocking..."

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Andrea shot up in bed, dislodging Rum as he began to uncurl. She heard someone knocking at the front door, and hurriedly threw on a clean shirt and a pair of khakis. She ran a brush through her hair as she walked hurriedly towards the door. "Just a minute!" she yelled as she quickly checked her reflection in the mirror. Not bad for just having woken up, though she wished she'd had more time. She sniffed as she passed through the living room and was relieved to find that the room was reasonably aired out.

She cautiously opened the door, cringing back from the bright sunlight that poured in. Daniel Norton leaned nonchalantly against one of the porch's columns, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Don't tell me I woke you up at this time of day, Beautiful. And me without any coffee."

Andrea blinked, and tried to suppress a yawn. "Tell you what, there's a coffee maker in the kitchen and grounds in the freezer. Have at it."

Daniel laughed as she opened the door wider and gestured for him to enter. He began to follow her to the kitchen, but paused and grabbed a bottle from the coffee table. He held up the half-empty fifth of Captain Morgan questioningly. "Late night? And you didn't invite me?"

He pretended to be hurt as Andrea took the bottle from him and pointed a finger into his chest. "You were on duty last night, mister. As for a late night...you have no idea."

He followed her as she went to the fridge and put the Captain back on ice. When she pulled out the coffee grounds Daniel took them from her hand and expertly proceeded to concoct a fine brew. Andrea rarely drank coffee on an empty stomach, and poked around in the fridge.

"How do you feel about onion bagels?" she asked Daniel. "As long as they're toasted and smothered in butter..." Andrea laughed. That was exactly how she liked them herself.

Before too long the two were seated at the ancient kitchen table. Andrea wolfed down her bagel while Daniel ate his slowly between sips of coffee. As Andrea set her mug down from her first drink, Daniel asked her "So...what made last night a late one?" Andrea toyed with her mug, seeking enlightenment from the dark depths.

It wasn't working. She looked up at Daniel. "We need to talk. I met your ghost last night...and I think I know how we can get rid of him."

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Andrea spent the better part of the afternoon giving Daniel a very edited version of what had happened the night before. He knew why Jack was haunting the house, and he knew why Andrea thought burning the ship's wheel would make Jack go away. But what Daniel didn't know could fill a book. If he suspected that Andrea was holding back part of the truth, he chose discretion as the better part of valor. He helped her pry the wheel from the wall and it now lay near the back door. They had stocked a pile of wood to be its funeral pyre, and decided that they would touch it off the next morning. Daniel wanted to light the bonfire before sunset that evening, but Andrea refused. "I just feel that this is something that should be done during the day. Granted, the ghost has seen this house as a prison for the last few centuries. But it seems rude to just burn him out without giving him a decent warning first."

And so Daniel had reluctantly left just an hour before sunset, but not until extracting Andrea's solemn promise that she would call him if anything happened. Now she sat on the couch, forlornly petting Rum as she waited for the sun to set and Jack to reappear.

And the entire time she wondered: How do you tell your ghostly lover that you're about to exorcise him?

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_**A/N**: Wow, I think that this is my longest chapter to date. I hope you all enjoyed this, and that at least some of you are expecting the twist that I have in store...I do have something rather unexpected up my sleeve, but I am trying to figure out how to work it in. Sadly, in order to have a happy ending for this story I have decided that a sequel will not be forthcoming. It would be possible, mind you, just incredibly unlikely and it would no longer be a POTC fanfic - and so I would be unable to post it here. M'eyari_


	9. End in Fire

_**Disclaimer**: Nope, POTC still isn't mine. At least until December 2, 2003. Andrea, Rum and Norton, however, are all mine._

Let's keep them that way.

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**End in Fire**

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Andrea curled up in a corner of the couch, watching listlessly as the sun slowly dropped below the horizon. She couldn't stop petting Rum, though the cat had shifted numerous times to keep her from rubbing his fur clean off of him. She pondered what she knew and wondered about what she didn't. Would Jack want her to burn the wheel? Or would he he...want to stay here, with her? She had a feeling that "love" wasn't a word that entered often into a pirate's vocabulary. Yes, he was sexy. Yes, he was intriguing.

But who in their right mind would pursue a relationship with a ghost?

The sun gave one final flare of light before slipping away, and as the light died Rum struggled out of Andrea's lap. A cool breeze whipped through the room, rustling loose papers and threatening to knock over furniture, before settling on the couch at Andrea's feet.

Jack coalesced into existence, his transparent head nestled in Andrea's lap. She smiled half-heartedly. "Just had to make an entrance, didn't you?"

"Of course, luv. If I didn't, I wouldn't be Captain Jack Sparrow." He tilted his head backwards so that his eyes met hers over the brim of his hat. He frowned as he saw the expression on her face. "What's troubling you, luv? No regrets about last night, I hope?"

Andrea shook her head, but found that she was too choked up to speak. Jack's brow furrowed, and a dangerous light came into his eyes. "If that Norton has said or done anything to you..." his voice was dripping with menace. Andrea shook her head and forced her voice to emerge past the lump in her throat. "No...it's not anything Daniel has said or done. We need to talk, Jack."

Jack flipped over, his form seeming more solid as he took a sitting position opposite from Andrea. "Well, I'm here. And not leaving anytime soon, might I add. What is it that you need to talk to me about?" Andrea pulled her feet in towards her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "Do you still want to burn the _Pearl_ out of this house? Do you still want to be cut away from this world?" If Jack had been expecting any topic, his freedom from the _Pearl_ was the last one.

He seemed briefly stunned, considering his words carefully as he uttered them. "Aye, lass. Per'aps not any time soon, of course, but that was my eventual goal, luv."

Andrea sat in silence as Jack grew uneasy. He didn't know where she was going, but the link between them told him it wasn't going to be good. "What happened today, Andrea?" Her answer was so quiet Jack could hardly hear her. "Stuff." she muttered. Then, with more volume, "Why did you soul-bind me? How did you do it?"

Jack moved uneasily. "Why do you need to know?"

"Jack! I just need to know, okay?" The ghost clammed up, giving Andrea the sort of stubborn look that only a pirate could manage.

She sighed in frustration. "Rum entered my dreams today. To make a long story short, he thinks that the soul-bind you put on me will...interfere...with setting you free. Maybe. So would you please tell me what, exactly, it is that you did to me?"

The stubborn look wasn't going away. Andrea's forehead hit her knees, her shoulders slumping. "Jack...please. Don't do this."

The pirate sighed. "Luv, do you have any idea what it's like to be a ghost? To exist half-way between this world and the next? Sometimes it seems that you're the only real thing in the world, and sometimes you feel yourself slipping away. After a century or two time starts to lose all meaning, and you can't recall if the people around you are ones that you've known for years or just people who look like people that you've known for years. Sometimes there were people here who could see me, lass. Really see me! And just when it'd seem that I'd gotten to know them, I'd pop in to talk and some young 'un with their face would be there instead..." Jack shook his head. "It's no existence for anyone, luv."

Andrea rested her chin on her knees and spoke softly. "So...if I thought that there was a good chance that we could free you tonight, you'd jump to do it?" Jack stared at her and chose his words with care. "Per'aps not tonight, luv. I'd want to wait for a more...opportune moment. Savvy?" A wicked gleam came into the pirate's eye, and he began to move cat-like towards Andrea. "After all...we've only just begun to get to know each other..." Andrea tried not to laugh as Jack started nibbling her neck.

"Jack...really...this isn't the best of times, don't you think?" The pirate folded semi-solid arms around her and before Andrea knew it she was lying prone with Jack straddling her.

His face merely inches from hers, his cold breath sliding along her jawline, Andrea shivered as Jack whispered "Time is only as good as you make it, luv."

Andrea's shivers turned to ones of anticipation as Jack placed ghostly kisses on her sensitive neck. "Hey...now...wait a minute...Jack?! Are you trying to distract me?!" His low laugh reverberated around the room.

"That would be a 'yes'." Andrea snorted. "Let me up!"

She gasped as the pirate buried his mouth in the crook of her neck. "Don't wanna" he mumbled. "Jack!" Andrea growled, and the pirate let go with a sigh. "Woman...there's no pleasing you, honestly."

Andrea tried desperately to get her breathing back under control and attempted to take a firm stance. "I was pleased quite good and well last night, thank you very much. And you can 'please' me now by telling me what, exactly, you did to me. And why. Why would be good."

Jack stared hard at her. "I might have rather less answers than you'd like to hear, luv. And possibly a few more questions. Are you really sure you want to be getting yourself into that?" Andrea stared right back and held in a sigh of frustration. "It's not a 'want', Jack Sparrow. It's a 'need'. If I truly did not need to know, I wouldn't be asking you."

Jack continued to stare hard at her. It's very hard to win a staring contest with a ghost, but Andrea had practiced on Rum and she gave as good as she got. Jack finally settled back onto his half of the couch. "You know I'm a bit of a prankster, luv. Goes hand-in-hand with being a pirate, really. Occasionally I'd scare the family here so badly that they would actually drag in a priest to exorcise me. Oh, I laughed at most of them. No real belief in them and every 'sacred' word they spouted were just so many syllables. There was one, though, an elderly chap the Church had dragged out of a monastery. He came about ten years before your Norton was born, and he knew me for what I was. A true believer, that one. It's funny, though. All his chants, prayers, incantations? They were focused on removing evil from the house, demonic presences. Now, a ghost I am. Evil? Sometimes. But a demon? That, luv, I am not and so I am still here.

"Now, this soul-bind of ours is a result of that monk's work. For a few minutes while he chanted I felt disoriented, like I haven't felt since the day that I died. For a few moments I blacked out, and when I regained my awareness I was holding the necklace that I placed on you. It took me a long time to find out what it was. There was an older woman who lived here not so long ago, what we would have called a witch back in my day. She actually had the nerve to summon me! Me! Captain Jack Sparrow! 'You don't belong here.' she said to me. 'You possess an item of great power, spirit, one that can bind a mortal's soul to your very own merely by placing it upon them and speaking their name. One will come...yes, I see it now...one will come here. One who has never made the journey before, a soul unburdened by a past life. Her destiny, it is, to have her future bound with yours, yes...Use it, Jack Sparrow. Use it and destroy that which you believe holds you here. Use it wisely and you will gain all that your heart desires. 

"Use it foolishly..."

Jack paused in his narrative. The silence stretched and grew until Andrea was ready to scream at him to continue. "Let's just say that using it foolishly would be a very bad thing, luv."

Andrea sat in silence, mulling over...everything. Jack began fidgeting on the couch, sidling closer to Andrea with every breath she took. "That's a very solemn look on your face, lass." She didn't answer, and after a few moments Jack tried again. "Lass? Hullo, anybody home?" "Hmmm?" Andrea broke out of her ruminations. "Oh...well, I guess that answers the how, and sort've answers the why...but it still doesn't tell me why you chose me. Out of all the people who've lived in this house, why did you bind me?"

Jack closed the gap between them and took Andrea into his almost-solid arms. His touch, though comforting, was like ice and Andrea was glad that she'd thought to put on a sweatshirt earlier. "Luv, what most people don't know about the after-life is how brief it is supposed to be. When Shakespeare said 'All the world's a stage and we are but players upon it', he didn't know how close he was to a spiritual truth. The characters change, but the players are almost always the same. They just don't know it."

"You mean reincarnation...that's what happens to us after death?" Jack sighed. "It happens to most of us, luv. When we're born we are destined to do certain things. It's like what that witch told me about destiny. 'Life's like a shopping list', she'd said. 'If you don't get everything on it you have to go back to the store. And you keep going back until you've gotten everything on that list.' I learned a lot from her but she had entirely too many cats roaming the house...but, luv, the point I was trying to make is that at this stage of things, new players are rare. There's still so many souls running around trying to finish their lists that it's unusual for a new soul to come into existence. And that's what you are, luv. A new soul. An Innocent, as the witch would have named you.

"When you entered the house, I knew you were the person the witch had spoken of, the soul that was destined to set me free. Once I knew that how could I resist?"

"So is that all I am to you, Jack?" Andrea whispered softly. "A means to an end?" Jack tightened his arms around her, nuzzling the hair by her ear. "No, luv. You're an end in and of yourself, and don't you dare impugn me honor by thinking otherwise." Andrea laughed. "I thought pirates didn't put much stock in personal honor?" Jack shrugged. "We have our Code...some call them rules, some call them guidelines, but we follow them. Most of us..."

"So, luv, if I've answered all of your burning questions, would you mind telling me what went on while I was out today?" Andrea stiffened in Jack's arms. "Well...that can't be good." Jack said, mildly sarcastic.

Andrea slowly exhaled. "Jack...had you ever noticed the ship's wheel that was in the wall over there?"

Jack frowned. "There was a wheel?"

"It was the same color as the surrounding wall...someone had converted the spokes of it into little knick-knack shelves. According to Daniel, that's the one part of the house that his family made a point not to mess with. So he and I think that it is the final piece of the _Pearl_ holding you here.

"We've removed it and placed it by the back door. There's a pile of dry wood waiting to be touched off, and Daniel wanted to burn it before sunset today. I barely talked him into waiting until tomorrow." Andrea cleared her suddenly dry throat. "My point is, if you really want to be free I can let him burn it tomorrow. If you don't...I can probably hide the wheel and Daniel will assume that the family poltergeist is at work again."

Jack was stunned. For centuries he'd wanted nothing more than to be free of this accursed house, to set sail for the horizon of the next world, and now that he finally had a reason to want to stay that freedom was being dangled in front of him. "Jack? Are you okay?" The ghost blinked and pulled himself together. "I'm surprised, luv, that's all. Are you sure it's the last piece?" "What else could it be?" Andrea twisted in Jack's arms so that she was facing him. "Tick tock, Jack. Do you want to stay, just a little longer, or do you want to gamble that this is the last piece and go out tomorrow?"

Jack peered down his nose at Andrea. "I don't think this is a decision that needs to be rushed, luv."

"No...but we're not exactly long on time here, either."

The two were locked in a battle of gazes, their noses bare inches from each other. A grin spread quickly on Jack's face, barely warning Andrea before he locked his lips to hers. "I think..." he mumbled "that we've talked quite long enough, luv." His tongue slipped into her willing mouth, and before Andrea could blink they were once more on the deck of the _Black Pearl_. With Jack's arms still around her, she murmured "You keep bringing us here and you're not going to have the energy for anything else." Jack shrugged. "I'm solid on this plane, luv, as I can never be in your world. I considered it effort well-spent when I brought you here last night, I consider it effort well-spent right now, and I will continue to consider it well-spent if I have to drag you here every night for the rest of your life." Andrea laughed as Jack swung her up into his arms and carried her into his personal cabin.

And she continued to laugh joyfully as Jack enthusiastically began to seduce her. But before long, her laugh became a hacking cough, and Jack looked at her in alarm. "Luv? Are you alright?" She wheezed, she couldn't breathe, it was suddenly so very hot...with a scream the world around her fell apart, and Andrea fell into unconsciousness...

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_**A/N**: Aye, I'm cruel. But don't let the title fool you, our tale's not quite over yet. Expect "Perish Twice" to be up within the next week._

Now, for mucho brownie points, can anyone put together the monk references from "A Rude Awakening" and "End in Fire"? I would like to know if I was too subtle or too obvious with it...

And for those who are wondering where the other characters from POTC are, the point of this fic is that it's a Jack-fic. The other characters aren't making appearances because they didn't get their souls bound to an object and so happily moved on when they died. 

_At least...that's the theory._


	10. Perish Twice

_**Disclaimer: **Not mine, darn it._

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**Perish Twice  
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Daniel Norton was the biggest ass in the world.

Well, that's how he felt, anyway. He huddled in on himself as he sat in a chair by Andrea's bedside. Her breathing was slow and even, in perfect time with the beeps of the hospital's monitoring machines. Her cat curled by her shoulder, giving Norton disdainful glares every time he so much as glanced the cat's way. Every time Norton reached to touch Andrea's hand, or stroke her hair, the cat would begin to growl and hiss. Norton had had several offers from the nurses to remove the cat, but he'd turned them all down.

After all, the scratches on his own hand had required some minor stitching.

He hadn't known what to think when he'd stopped by earlier to check on Andrea. Peering in through the windows like a common criminal, his blood had boiled when he saw the ghost's head in her lap. At first he'd thought it was another man, and then the ghost had sat up - and Norton had literally seen right through him.

It was unnerving, to say the least. To see the phantom that had made his childhood a living hell not only talking with his woman, but laughing with her, teasing her, doing all the things Norton had wanted to do since he'd first laid eyes on her. It was all Norton could do to keep from bursting into the house as the ghost wrestled Andrea down for a kiss. Only Andrea's quick pushing away of the ghost had kept Norton outside.

Then the ghost had disappeared and Andrea had collapsed lifelessly on the couch. Norton had burst into the house then, rushing to her side. Her breathing had been rapid, her body terrifyingly still. "Andrea!" he'd shouted, shaking her, but she'd refused to wake up. In a panic, Norton had decided that the ghost must have been doing something to her. Without a second thought he'd dragged the ship's wheel to the woodpile outside, kicking Andrea's cat into a wall when it tried to get in his way. It was a matter of seconds before he'd been frantically able to set the dry wood aflame, and he'd tossed the wheel into the center of the pile. It wasn't until the wheel was mere ashes and embers that Norton had re-entered the house.

Andrea had lain still on the couch, pale as moonlight and covered by a cold sweat. Norton dropped to his knees by her side, taking her cold hand in his as her eyelids fluttered open.

"Daniel," she'd whispered in a voice hoarse from coughing, "what have you done?"

She'd slipped into the coma so easily after that. One minute she was gazing at him with horror in her eyes, and the next she had slipped into unconsciousness as an otter did into a familiar pool. When Norton had taken her to the hospital the doctors had been mystified. "Physically there is nothing wrong with her. You were only having a bonfire, you say?" Norton felt miserable about his tailoring of the facts, but somehow he didn't think telling the truth would win him any sanity awards.

He still didn't know how her cat had gotten into the hospital. He'd left it unconscious on the kitchen floor, and after a quick bathroom break he'd found it on Andrea's bed, stubbornly resisting any attempts to dislodge it.

Now the nurses were stubbornly attempting to dislodge him. "You've been here all night, Officer. If she wakes up, we'll make sure you're the first to know. Now, shoo. Go home. Get some rest. She's not sleeping for the both of you, and your staying awake isn't going to help her." After a litany of such talk, Norton reluctantly conceded, vowing to be back within a few hours, to get some sleep if only to get the nurses off his back. He was completely unaware of two ogling his backside as he left, one's comment of "Ooo, if I had a man like that to watch over me as I slept I'd be in a coma, too!" utterly escaping his attention.

'_Finally._' Rum thought. '_I was beginning to think he'd _never_ leave.' _He tucked his paws firmly under his body, and settled down for a catnap. 

Dream-walking was coming back to him the more that he practiced it. He tumbled immediately into Andrea's forest, his nose having no trouble detecting her scent on the trail. He followed his nose, and veered sharply off the path as the scent did. Rum found himself not in a clearing this time, but on a beach with silver sand. The sea was a blue so dark it could be mistaken for black and the sky faded from a normal azure to a violent purple as it arched over the primordial waters.

Rum trotted directly towards a body that sat on the edge of the beach, its legs pulled up to its chest as the incoming waves reached for its toes. His form began to shift as he came closer, so that his four-footed trot became a fast walk on his two legs. He stopped behind the human, fiercely reminding himself that he didn't need to pant because it wasn't really air that his body was trying to breathe.

"I can't find him, Rum." Tears had left moist trails down Andrea's cheeks. "I looked all night." Rum sank to the sand, wrapping Andrea in a fierce hug as her sobbing began anew. "Shh...shh. It's alright...it's okay..." he murmured as he rocked her in his arms.

After a time she lay quietly in Rum's arms, and he began to speak softly. "It's all my fault, you know. I tried to exorcise Jack from that house nearly thirty-three years ago, and I bungled it. I didn't take into account that he wasn't evil, in and of himself, nor was the soul-bind. It was the way the soul-bind had been _used_ that was evil. So my exorcism didn't get rid of him, or it; it just detached them from each other until he found something it was worthy to be used on."

Rum gazed out at the sea, his voice gaining a far-away quality. " 'Tisn't a thing in this world or the next that can separate the two of you now, which means that I failed in what I was sent to do. My job was to keep you safe while freeing him, and you're far from safe, m'dear Andrea."

Andrea lay listlessly in Rum's arms, hardly listening to him. He placed a hand on her chin, gently turning her head to face the far-away horizon. As they watched, a form slowly became visible, slowly became identifiable as a magnificent galleon. Andrea perked up as it became ever more apparent that the ship was the _Black Pearl_, and that the form racing about her deck could only be one man.

Her man.

Her Jack.

As the_ Pearl _entered shallow waters, the anchor dropped, the ship pulling sharply to one side even as a dinghy was lowered to the seething water below. It raced across the waves until it was within a mere foot of the shoreline. Andrea struggled out of Rum's arms, holding a hand up to Jack even as he held out a hand to her.

"Stop!" Rum screamed. "Set so much as one toe in that water, Andrea, and you'll be deader than refried beans. The rivers of the Underworld empty into this ocean!"

Andrea and Jack gazed longingly at each other, their palms so close and yet so far apart. If Andrea was bound to the shore, Jack was just as surely bound to the sea.

With one yet living, and one very dead, they faced each other in hope and in despair.

"So what do we do now, Jack Sparrow?" Andrea murmured. His laugh came low, still sending shivers down Andrea's spine. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me, Andrea Talliver."

"You two have a choice ahead of you." Rum's voice rumbled, his youth fading as his voice deepened. His hair whitened, a beard grew upon his face, until the cat-man was utterly replaced by the form of the monk Rum had once been. "Andrea Talliver, you have been bound. Your body lies in a state between life and death, and it is up to you to choose which way your soul will now walk. You may return to Life, and finish all there that you have left to do. You may choose Death, and while you will be with Jack you will also be burdened with the knowledge of every harmful thing that will occur because of the good deeds you left undone.

"You must choose, my dear child. You alone.

"And you must choose now."

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_**A/N**: I know, I know, horrible of me to have even a hint of a cliff-hanger. Obviously our tale is at its end, but as Andrea must choose, so must my readers. If you would prefer to see Andrea live, then continue on to "Future's Past". This is the ending that I feel would offer an opportunity for a non-fanfic sequel, though one is not currently in the works. If you are impatient to see Andrea with Jack now, then continue on to "Horizon"._

Of course, you could be greedy and R&R both. I won't complain. I promise.  


_Brownie points go to: Shanelover1, Precarious Personata, Captain "Phoenyx" Aquamarine and Laura. Give yourselves a pat on the back, you deserve it!_


	11. Future's Past

_**Disclaimer**: Yep, everybody in here is mine. Except for Jack, o'course.  
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**Future's Past**

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_"You must choose, my dear. You alone. And you must choose now."  
_  
Jack gazed imploringly into Andrea's eyes as she thought. Part of her yearned to just give up and go with him, and a part of her knew that she would never forgive herself for being so irresponsible. "I love you, Jack Sparrow." As the pirate's mouth dropped, Andrea turned her head to face Rum. "We are bound, he and I. Doesn't that mean that nothing can separate us, not even death?"

Rum nodded slowly. Andrea whipped back to face Jack, agony etched into her young face. "I can't follow you back to the world of the living, luv. Not as I am." Sorrow colored Jack's voice in a way that made Andrea's heart break.

"I won't ask you to wait for me, Jack. Not here in limbo. But someday..." she leaned so that her fingertips brushed his. "Someday, I will find you, Jack Sparrow. And I will never leave you again."

Rum gently took a hold of Andrea, and pulled her back from the water. "Is that your decision, child?"

Tears streaming down her face, Andrea nodded. As they began to fade from the dream world, her voice echoed.

_I will find you...  
_  
"Not if I find you first, my love." Jack whispered. "Not if I find you first."

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Daniel wheezed gently as he strolled through the cemetery. Twenty years at a desk job had been relatively kind to the fifty year old man, but he still regretted all those donuts when it came time to walk these days.

He paused beside the fresh grave. Donuts weren't his only regret, and he had never forgiven himself for screwing up the one chance he had had with Andrea Talliver all those years ago. She had come out of that coma a changed woman, sad where before she had been so merry. Oh, she'd still laughed from time to time, but never with the care-free manner that she'd had before.

"You should have told me, Andy." Daniel whispered softly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She'd lived a full-life, albeit a lonely one. Her books had changed the views of medieval scholars world-wide, and her translations of ancient epics into modern prose had prompted a veritable renaissance of medieval literature. It was a point of pride with Norton that she'd done most of the work in his house, renting it every summer until she finally asked to buy it a few years ago.

Her death from cancer, while unexpected, had been mercifully swift.

"Why, Andy?" Daniel allowed tears to roll down his cheeks for the first time since learning of her death. "We could have gotten you treatment. We could have stopped it. Why?!"

The black cat watched him cry, knowing that grief is a part of life. Why he grieved when it was so clear that the woman's spirit had already moved on was a mystery to the cat. The cat continued to clean himself, ready to keep his vigil in the cemetery long after the man had completed his grieving and left.

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Marie looked up from her writing as someone tapped the table in front of her. She looked up with a frown. The Buzz wasn't exactly an exclusive coffeehouse, but most people refrained from interrupting her while she worked.

The young man in front of her was absolutely stunning. Hair like dark chocolate swept past his shoulders, his body was lithe and tanned, his face sported the beginnings of a black goatee, and his eyes...Marie tried not to suck in her breath as she stared into those gorgeous, green-masquerading-as-brown, orbs. "I'm sorry, but it's rather full in here...is this seat taken?"

She shook her head, then found her voice. "Help yourself, no one else is using it."

The youth didn't sit in the chair so much as he molded himself to it. "Hey, I've noticed you in here before. Mind if I ask you a question?"

Marie shrugged. "You can ask, doesn't mean I'll answer."

The youth laughed. "What is it you're always writing in here?" 

Marie tensed. She never liked discussing her work, especially now that she was trying to get it published and she had more rejection letters than she cared to count. "It's a ghost story."

The youth propped himself on his elbows. "I'm all ears, honest."

Marie sighed. "Well, there's this woman, and she rents a beach house, only to find out that the original house was made using the timbers from a pirate ship. Then she finds out that the ghost of the ship's captain is haunting the house."

"Sounds interesting. Can I read it?"

Marie pulled the notebook in reflexively to her chest. "It's not finished yet."

The youth raised an eyebrow. Marie reluctantly passed the notebook over. "It's all rather silly, anyway, it's based on a stupid dream I keep having."

"You shouldn't be so self-conscious. Inspiration has to come from somewhere, where better than dreams? Besides," and the youth wiggled his eyebrows at her, "maybe you're dreaming of a past-life, haha."

Marie snorted. "Past life? Schyeah, right."

The youth definitely had expressive eyebrows. One was currently squatting low over an eye while the other was reaching for his hairline.

"I dream almost every night of the open sea, and yet I've never been sailing in my life. The first time my dad threw me into a pool, I took to swimming like a fish. 'There's more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, my dear Horatio.' I'm sure I was a sailor in a past life." He paused, then struck what he considered a dashing pose. "Maybe even...a pirate."

She laughed. "The name's Marie, not Horatio, Mr. Pirate, though it is nice to meet someone who can quote the Bard."

The youth grinned. "Well then, Marie, I'm Lauren. Though most people who call me that don't call me it long - I prefer 'Jack'."

Marie raised an eyebrow of her own. "Jack?"

He grinned. "I'm a regular 'Jack of All Trades', luv."

The two bent their heads in conversation the rest of the night, both feeling an almost eerie connection, a sense that they were meant to meet that night and never part.

Neither would ever fully realize the past history that they shared, or the future that had already been mapped out for them.

A little grey cat watched from the shadows outside the coffeehouse, staring through the window as snow gently fell from the sky. His work here was finally done; the damage had been repaired and the couple had several lifetimes together ahead of them. Their world would continue to run smoothly now that he had secured their future's past.

_THE END_


	12. Horizon

_**Disclaimer: **It's mine, all mine! 'laughs maniacally as Michael Eisner waltzes up and swats her with a rolled up newspaper.' Ouch. Okay, everything BUT the characters from PoTC are mine…happy now, Mike?_

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**Horizon**

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_"You must choose, my dear child. You alone. And you must choose now."  
_  
Andrea gazed at Rum in despair. "How can I leave him now, Rum? After I thought I'd lost him?" She looked at the pirate who was gazing at her solemnly. Andrea chewed her bottom lip, building up the courage to ask him one question. A single question that she needed answered before she willingly threw her life one way or another. Soul-bound or no, she needed to know.

"Jack...do you love me?"

Jack inhaled quickly, the sound made all too sharp by the surrounding silence. "Can you not tell by the way I look at you, lass? I spent my entire life seeking the next horizon, the next grand adventure. It wasn't until I met you that I realized I'd found what I'd spent my entire life searching for."

His hand stretched towards her face, his fingertips straining to brush her cheek. "Treasure's treasure, luv. But you are far more precious to me than silver or gold ever were."

As Andrea and Jack's gazes were once more locked in longing, Rum sighed. "Shall I take it that is your decision, then?"

Andrea nodded slowly, never taking her eyes from Jack's face. "I can't help it, Rum. I can't leave him. Not now. Not ever."

"So be it. Andrea, all you need do is step in the water. Jack, you might want to grab her first..." Andrea willingly stepped into the dark blue waves, Jack leaping out to catch her as her legs folded. Andrea shivered violently until Jack had reseated them both in the dinghy. Andrea felt...odd. Somehow empty, and yet more whole than she'd ever been in her life. Jack kissed her passionately, and in a moment that seemed to last forever she knew she had made the right decision. Wherever they went from here, they would go together.

And nothing would ever tear them apart.

"Children." Rum smiled as a feminine form stepped out of the woods. "Were we ever that young?" Rum's apparent age peeled off of him even as his companion finished the short walk to him. "Giving him the clues he needed to soul-bind _her_ in particular was a nice touch, though you could have warned me first, Elizabeth. It would have made my task much easier."

The dark blonde laughed, throwing her arms around him. "Oh honestly, Will, when have you ever preferred an 'easy task'? And why did you call Jack a 'foul apparition'? Wasn't that taking things a bit too far?"

Will shrugged. "I had to keep him from realizing who I was." He sighed in contentment, gazing at his now-distant friend even as his own soul-mate wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad to see him finally complete, dear. But now I have to go back and take care of a few things..."

When Andrea glanced back at the shore, she felt a pang when she saw that Rum was gone. "I didn't say good-bye." she murmured, and Jack wrapped his arms even more tightly around her. "At this stage of things love, good-byes are never final. More likely than not, we'll not have seen the last o' your Rum."

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Rum, or rather, William Turner, awoke back in the hospital. Nurses scurried about the place as Andrea's heart monitor went into a flat-line. He knew they would be unsuccessful at rousing her - her soul was long gone.

He lay down in contentment. His job was finally done, his task complete. He just wished his memory would have returned sooner, but such was always the way when one inhabited an animal's body.

His heart-rate slowed, and pleasant thoughts of Elizabeth filled his head. They'd spent so many years meeting in passing and now they would finally enjoy their rest together.

As his eyes drifted shut his heart stopped...

As the doctor pulled the sheet over Andrea's face, he attempted to wake the sleeping cat. Only to pause, feel for breath, and pull the sheet over the still tabby as well. "Poor thing must have gone when she did." he muttered. "Nurse, someone needs to call Officer Norton. And find out from him who in her family needs to be contacted."

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Jack helped Andrea up onto the Pearl, and they hoisted the dinghy together. Once safely secured, Andrea helped Jack raise the anchor and prepare to sail. He held her hands on the wheel, teaching her to steer the mighty ship even as he hummed his good-luck tune under his breath. "Show me that horizon, luv. We'll be finding out what's waiting for us out there...together."

_THE END_


End file.
